Looking forward to 2025 - a year of (re)connection

As is common at this time of year, as work starts to slow ahead of a downtime over Christmas and the promise of a new year and a chance to establish ambitions, aspirations and goals approaches, I've been doing a lot of reflecting recently.

2024 has been a tough year for me, as it has for many others. It's been a year fraught with uncertainty and change. A year when many of the structures around me have been transformed, trees uprooted, foundations shaken. I'm very fortunate to be ending 2024 still in a job which I value and can bring meaning to - I see so many on LinkedIn, and know of many more outside of LinkedIn, who aren't nearly as fortunate. So whilst 2024 has been difficult, I find myself grateful for what I've been able to hold on to amid the swirl of change around me.

For me 2025 brings with it opportunity. Opportunities for building and progressing again, for starting over within the new structures around me, for reconnecting with so many things I've left behind, or let fade too much in recent times.

The self-fulfilling prophecy

In Autumn, I found myself interviewing for a new role, one which would have been a step up for me and a move to a new environment. As part of the interview process, I was asked to complete a Personality Questionnaire. These things have always piqued my anxiety levels, largely because I know what they're going to say. I know that based on what I see as my preferences that I'm quite high on the introversion spectrum, that I'm not a comfortably social person.

And herein lies my issue with the use of personality or psychometric testing for any purpose. Years ago, I was trained and accredited to deliver one particular brand of psychometric test. Part of the accreditation process involved going through the tool myself as a delegate. I remember being presented with my results, which as with all these tools, felt really accurate and personal to me. I was clearly labelled as an Introvert, something like 79% introversion. We all shared our results as a team to help us understand each other better and understand how we can work better together. From then on, I was the Introverted Reflector. Unfortunately, that kind of label sticks, and worse than it effecting how my colleagues perceived me and interacted with me, it effected how I saw myself. Here it was in black and white - not good with people.

I stuck that label to myself and believed it enough that I became it. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy, or rather a prophecy which I went on to fulfill.

I know that almost all of the psychometric tests out there have been debunked, left, right and centre, but there still very commonly used in lots of different areas to provide "insight". If you're interested in just how nonsensical Myers-Briggs is (I'm an INFP btw, FYI I'm also a Sagittarius which I believe has equal scientific footing when it comes to these kind of workplace horoscopes ) then this link here is worth a read - Why the Myers-Briggs personality test is totally meaningless | Vox

So fast-forward now to the interview this Autumn where I'm sat in front of some Directors of this organisation, fully aware they've got bits of paper in front of them telling them that I'm not great with people and prefer to work on my own or in small groups. The interview went relatively well, though ultimately, I was unsuccessful. Thankfully, the panel agreed to give me some feedback - something which seems increasingly rare nowadays?!

I wasn't ready for the feedback they gave me or the journey it would ultimately take me on. The key piece of feedback was that I needed to think more about "How I come across". Apparently, I hadn't smiled once during the whole interview. Though the chair of the panel who was providing the feedback did say, "You seem a completely different person today, so much more relaxed and friendly," during our feedback session.

The impact of Working From Home

Granted, I've always struggled at times with things like small talk. I'm typically British, so once I've asked you about the weather, I've got nowhere else to go other than talk about the matter in hand, the reason for us meeting. I recently watched a really interesting episode of Steven Bartlett's Diary of a CEO podcast in which the guest described them self as a "recovering awkward person", that's pretty much me. But over the years, I'd worked on it and had got to the point where I was pretty good and interacting with people, working in small groups etc. Don't get me wrong, full blown networking events were still the stuff of nightmares for me. But those aside, I'd made great progress.

Then along came COVID. My offices shut down to never re-open again during the pandemic. Working from home was a success, it worked, and without all the expensive building rents my company were having to pay. So I'd now be permanently working from home. Personally, it was amazing, I had two young children who I could be a lot closer to, who I could be present with. My work/life balance was better, my productivity higher.

But what I'd never really appreciated was the impact it would have on my social skills and the interactions I have outside of the few people I see most days in my team. Without being able to practice and maintain my social skills, or be around different people and interact with people in person, these skills are being eroded. Like any skill, if you don't use it, you lose it. And I've lost some of mine.

Interestingly, I was listening to a really interesting Bruce Daisley podcast the other week around "Tribes" - https://eatsleepworkrepeat.com/turning-your-team-into-a-tribe/. During the discussion, they noted that whilst the Work From Home mandate had seen really positive results on an individual level (higher productivity, greater work/life balance, better sleep etc.), it had also seen really negative impacts on collaboration across teams and co-working. Being out of sight, it appears, really does mean being out of mind.

Equally, there have been events in my personal life in recent years which have meant that I can't be as present with different groups or with different people as maybe I once was. Where I've not been able to travel to see people as much as I'd have liked or wanted. Thankfully, I'm in a place now where I've got more of a stable footing and can look to grow and explore again.

A nudge in the right direction

Sometimes it only takes a little nudge from those who know us best to put us back on the right track. For me, that little nudge came from my dad. We were driving somewhere a few months ago, and I mentioned the whole introvert thing to him. "I'm really shocked by that, you always used to like being around people," was his response after I'd talked to him about it. I've since spent quite a bit of time thinking about this and trying to work out the truth of it all. Ultimately, it turns out that maybe my dad knows me better than some kind of short psychometric test! That through a combination of experiences and inputs I've amplified certain aspects of me at the expense of some of my other traits and values.

A year of re-connection

So 2025 for me is going to be a year of re-connection. I need to re-connect with my organisation - we've both changed a lot over the last few year or two and there's a lot of reconnecting and healing that needs to be done in earnest as we start the new year. Along with this, reconnecting with my team, who have been through an awful lot this year too. Now that we've got a greater degree of certainty about our future we can start to look to forward together and get excited again about all the great things we can achieve and the great places we can take ourselves and our work. There's also reconnecting with other people across my organisation who I've not been around for a long time and understanding how we can work together across the whole organisation better, as well as meeting and connecting with new people for the first time.

But beyond that, I'm planning to make 2025 a year when I reconnect with my profession and my wider networks. I'm really fortunate that I'm part of some great networks (some of whom may have even read this far down this article!) but I know I've been too passive and not contributed enough in support of these networks, not been to many social events, or breathed the same air as so many of my great colleagues and fellow professionals. So I'm going to be trying to change that - albeit I'm off to a rocky start with this one. Last week, I attended an early morning session with Offbeat Sparks, it was 8am, my little boy had been up most of the night with a cold and not sleeping, and after the initial presentations they said, "We're now going to have a little networking time." That was a no from me. All of my bravery deserted me and I wasn't ready for that, so bowed out. I will just add though that I've just attended the Tea and Talk session by the Learning Network and really enjoyed it. So baby steps.

Finally, it's going to be a year of reconnecting with myself. Understanding me and where I'm at and where I want to go in the future. What do I want to achieve? What are my ambitions? What am I holding on to that isn't serving me well any more? and What can I do to progress to the next level?

So how about you, what are your hopes and focuses for 2025?